An NHS hospital has ordered a laundry amnesty after almost 2,000 pairs of pyjamas went missing.

University Hospital Southampton trust said its stocks of nightwear were almost bare, because too many patients have taken their gowns home when they were discharged, along with scores of blankets and walking sticks.

The trust said that having stocked up on 2,000 pairs of pyjamas in January, just 73 pairs are left.

Pyjamas are one of the items most often taken from hospitals by patients when they are discharged.

At £6 pounds a pair, it means the hospital is £11,562 pounds out of pocket.

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Juliet Cox, head of patient experience, said the trust was working with care homes across the city to make sure patients were given their own clothes to return home in – or disposable gowns to wear.

She said: "The loss of any hospital property, whether it is clothing, crutches or other equipment, does have an impact, both in terms of supplies for other patients and the cost of replacements.

"Although we will always have gowns and nightwear available to protect patients' privacy and dignity, a few small steps can ensure we avoid unnecessarily purchasing additional clothing and can put the funds to better use.”

She said the trust was working with patients and staff to highlight the problem, and had updated a patients’ guide advising people to bring their own clothes with them.

In January, a hospital laundry which processes bed linen for trusts in England and Wales announced plans to “microchip” items to stop them going missing.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board's laundry service in Cwmbran, Torfaen, has contracts with NHS trusts in Wales and England and processes 12 million pieces of linen each year.

However, it spends £390,000 a year replacing unreturned items.

It has now fitted Radio Frequency Identification tags to 300,000 pieces of linen.

The Green Vale Laundry - operated by the health board - said it hoped it would stop hundreds of bed sheets and gowns from getting lost.

In other cases, trusts have been forced to pay compensation after losing clothes belonging to patients.

Figures released in May disclose that NHS Tayside had to pay more than £10,000 in compensation for lost items over a three-year period. The payouts included £20 after a patient’s underwear went missing in hospital, with £525 paid for missing dentures, and £1,247 for a lost hearing aid.